The 1994 Edition of the CIA World Factbook

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Overview: Egypt has one of the largest public sectors of all the Third World economies, most industrial plants being owned by the government. Overregulation holds back technical modernization and foreign investment. Even so, the economy grew rapidly during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but in 1986 the collapse of world oil prices and an increasingly heavy burden of debt servicing led Egypt to begin negotiations with the IMF for balance-of-payments support. Egypt's first IMF standby arrangement concluded in mid-1987 was suspended in early 1988 because of the government's failure to adopt promised reforms. Egypt signed a follow-on program with the IMF and also negotiated a structural adjustment loan with the World Bank in 1991. In 1991-93 the government made solid progress on administrative reforms such as liberalizing exchange and interest rates but resisted implementing major structural reforms like streamlining the public sector. As a result, the economy has not gained momentum and unemployment has become a growing problem. Egypt probably will continue making uneven progress in implementing the successor programs with the IMF and World Bank it signed onto in late 1993. In 1992-93 tourism plunged 20% or so because of sporadic attacks by Islamic extremists on tourist groups. President MUBARAK has cited population growth as the main cause of the country's economic troubles. The addition of about 1.4 million people a year to the already huge population of 60 million exerts enormous pressure on the 5% of the land area available for agriculture.National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $139 billion (1993 est.)National product real growth rate: 0.3% (1993 est.)National product per capita: $2,400 (1993 est.)Inflation rate (consumer prices): 11% (1993 est.)Unemployment rate: 20% (1993 est.)Budget: revenues: $16.8 billion expenditures: $19.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $3.4 billion (FY94 est.)Exports: $3.5 billion (f.o.b., FY93 est.)commodities: crude oil and petroleum products, cotton yarn, raw cotton, textiles, metal products, chemicalspartners: EC, Eastern Europe, US, JapanImports: $10.5 billion (c.i.f., FY93 est.)commodities: machinery and equipment, foods, fertilizers, wood products, durable consumer goods, capital goodspartners: EC, US, Japan, Eastern EuropeExternal debt: $32 billion (March 1993 est.)Industrial production: growth rate -0.4% (FY92 est.); accounts for 18% of GDPElectricity: capacity: 14,175,000 kWproduction: 47 billion kWh consumption per capita: 830 kWh (1992)Industries: textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals, petroleum, construction, cement, metalsAgriculture: accounts for 20% of GDP and employs more than one-third of labor force; dependent on irrigation water from the Nile; world's sixth-largest cotton exporter; other crops produced include rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruit, vegetables; not self-sufficient in food for a rapidly expanding population; livestock - cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats; annual fish catch about 140,000 metric tonsIllicit drugs: a transit point for Southwest Asian and Southeast Asian heroin and opium moving to Europe and the US; popular transit stop for Nigerian couriers; large domestic consumption of hashish from Lebanon and SyriaEconomic aid: recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $15.7 billion; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $10.1 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $2.9 billion; Communist countries (1970-89), $2.4 billion Currency: 1 Egyptian pound (#E) = 100 piastersExchange rates: Egyptian pounds (#E) per US$1 - 3.369 (November 1993), 3.345 (November 1992), 2.7072 (1990), 2.5171 (1989), 2.2233 (1988), 1.5183 (1987)Fiscal year: 1 July - 30 June

Overview: Bolstered by a widespread national desire to reintegrate into Western Europe, the Estonian government has pursued a program of market reforms and rough stabilization measures, which is rapidly transforming the economy. Two years after independence - and one year after the introduction of the kroon - Estonians are beginning to reap tangible benefits; inflation is low; production declines appear to have bottomed out; and living standards are rising. Economic restructuring is clearly underway with the once-dominant energy-intensive heavy industrial sectors giving way to labor-intensive light industry and the underdeveloped service sector. The private sector is growing rapidly; the share of the state enterprises in retail trade has steadily declined and by June 1993 accounted for only 12.5% of total turnover, and 70,000 new jobs have reportedly been created as a result of new business start-ups. Estonia's foreign trade has shifted rapidly from East to West with the Western industrialized countries now accounting for two-thirds of foreign trade.National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $8.8 billion (1993 estimate from the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as extrapolated to 1993 using official Estonian statistics, which are very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)National product real growth rate: -5% (1993 est.)National product per capita: $5,480 (1993 est.)Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.6% per month (1993 average)Unemployment rate: 3.5% (May 1993); but large number of underemployed workersBudget: revenues: $223 million expenditures: $142 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992)Exports: $765 million (f.o.b., 1993)commodities: textile 14%, food products 11%, vehicles 11%, metals 11% (1993)partners: Russia, Finland, Latvia, Germany, UkraineImports: $865 million (c.i.f., 1993)commodities: machinery 18%, fuels 15%, vehicles 14%, textiles 10% (1993)partners: Finland, Russia, Sweden, Germany, NetherlandsExternal debt: $650 million (end of 1991)Industrial production: growth rate -27% (1993)Electricity: capacity: 3,700,000 kWproduction: 22.9 billion kWh consumption per capita: 14,245 kWh (1992)Industries: accounts for 42% of labor force; oil shale, shipbuilding, phosphates, electric motors, excavators, cement, furniture, clothing, textiles, paper, shoes, apparelAgriculture: employs 20% of work force; very efficient by Soviet standards; net exports of meat, fish, dairy products, and potatoes; imports of feedgrains for livestock; fruits and vegetablesIllicit drugs: transshipment point for illicit drugs from Central and Southwest Asia and Latin America to Western Europe; limited illicit opium producer; mostly for domestic consumptionEconomic aid: recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (1992), $10 million Currency: 1 Estonian kroon (EEK) = 100 cents (introduced in August 1992)Exchange rates: kroons (EEK) per US$1 - 13.9 (January 1994), 13.2 (1993); note - kroons are tied to the German Deutschmark at a fixed rate of 8 to 1Fiscal year: calendar year

@Estonia, Communications

Railroads: 1,030 km; does not include industrial lines (1990)Highways: total: 30,300 km paved or gravelled: 29,200 km unpaved: earth 1,100 km (1990)Inland waterways: 500 km perennially navigablePipelines: natural gas 420 km (1992)Ports: coastal - Tallinn, Novotallin, Parnu; inland - NarvaMerchant marine: 69 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 406,405 GRT/537,016 DWT, bulk 6, cargo 50, container 2, oil tanker 1, roll-on/roll-off cargo 6, short-sea passenger 4 Airports: total: 29 usable: 18 with permanent-surface runways: 11 with runways over 3,659 m: 0 with runways 2,440-3,659 m: 10 with runways 1,060-2,439 m: 8 note: a C-130 can land on a 1,060-m airstripTelecommunications: Estonia's telephone system is antiquated and supports about 400,000 domestic telephone circuits, i.e. 25 telephones for each 100 persons; improvements are being made piecemeal, with emphasis on business needs and international connections; there are still about 150,000 unfulfilled requests for telephone service; broadcast stations - 3 TV (provide Estonian programs as well Moscow Ostenkino's first and second programs); international traffic is carried to the other former USSR republics by land line or microwave and to other countries partly by leased connection to the Moscow international gateway switch, and partly by a new Tallinn-Helsinki fiber optic submarine cable which gives Estonia access to international circuits everywhere; substantial investment has been made in cellular systems which are operational throughout Estonia and also Latvia and which have access to the international packet switched digital network via Helsinki

@Estonia, Defense Forces

Branches: Ground Forces, Maritime Border Guard, National Guard (Kaitseliit), Security Forces (internal and border troops), Coast Guard Manpower availability: males age 15-49 392,135; fit for military service 308,951; reach military age (18) annually 11,789 (1994 est.)Defense expenditures: 124.4 million kroons, NA% of GDP (forecast for 1993); note - conversion of the military budget into US dollars using the current exchange rate could produce misleading results